Our missions

The Office for Science and Technology (OS&T) is headed by a Science Counselor, who reports to the Ambassador, with 8 attachés -all well recognized scientists or science policy specialists-, 10 deputy attachés, and staff. The OS&T also houses and works closely with the North America Representatives of the 3 French research agencies: CNES, CNRS, et INSERM, forming the Mission pour la Science et la Technologie (MS&T).

The OS&T works with the other sections of the Embassy: Culture, Economy and Trade, Nuclear, Environment, Chancellery … to better assess the socio-economic impact of science and technology in today USA.

The OS&T operates in close conjunction with numerous French institutions: research agencies, universities and engineering schools, centers for technology transfer, competitiveness clusters, incubators, businesses… and by different means: promotional actions, Franco-American collaborative development, and information collection.

Thanks to its wide territorial presence and wide range of science disciplines, the OS&T is an active, reactive and proactive observer of the scientific activity, of technological innovations and their impact. The OS&T has several branches located across the United States: main office in the French Embassy in Washington D.C., and within the French consulates in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston , San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The main goals of the Office for Science and Technology are:

to promote the French S&T with US actors, and with science expats, by organizing events, by publishing local or topical newsletters.
to watch scientific breakthroughs, investments and innovations in key domains, by networking with academic people, agencies, scientific associations, Congress, think-tanks and other R&D decision-making circles.
to report to France, via cables, weekly notes, embassy reports
to sustain existing scientific partnerships, to build new ones, by organising visits of experts, seminars, on common interest topics, by promoting the annual calls of the French-US joint endowments or funds.
to foster doctoral mobility of students and researchers, in particular with our flagship program Chateaubriand , and other incentives.